102 SEVENTH REPORT—1837. 
praiseworthy zeal in operation to further it; and,as opinions vary, 
many books are printed, in different alphabets or characters, for 
the use of the blind, each author contending that his plan must be 
the best. But this contention will soon cease, as some one system 
will be shown, by the preference of the blind themselves, to be 
decidedly superior, and all the others will be laid aside; for the 
blind will, when left to their own choice, use only that which 
they can read with the greatest facility and satisfaction. 
From what is here stated it seems that the alphabet best adapted 
for the use of the blind is not that which possesses superiority in 
some one particular, but that which is superior as a whole— 
that which offers the greatest swm of advantages. Now, pro- 
bably, this may not be the one which occupies the least space, 
for the bulk of the book is of much less importance than the ease 
with which its contents can be perused. Furthermore, as the 
object is GENERAL communication, the alphabet in common use 
must afford advantages which are incompatible with an arbitrary 
one ; for should a blind person become deaf, the only means of 
communicating with him would be by printing in raised letters, 
or by writing with the finger upon his head, back, &c.; and in 
such a case how limited would be his intercourse with others, 
if he had only learnt an arbitrary alphabet, compared with what 
it would have been had he been taught the one in common use! 
Tn the former case only very few could understand him, or be 
understood by him ; while in the latter almost every one could. 
communicate to him some intelligence of what was going on 
around him, and thereby contribute in no small degree to alle- 
viate the weight of his misfortune, and enliven the dreary gloom 
which must perpetually hang over his existence. 
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